Importing NEW Proposal

Bernard Nemis

Hello Everyone.

I am trying to import new proposals to our constituents. The process is not going through because it is asking for the Proposal Import ID. If I am importing new proposals, how can I provide the import ID? I though that is only required to update existing ones.

Thank you.

Alex Wong

@Bernard Nemis
Yes Proposal IMport ID is only needed if you are updating existing proposal (as identifier for which proposal to update).. If you are creating new proposal records, you will need the Constituent ID or Constituent Import ID, and Proposal Name

Bernard Nemis

@Alex Wong
Thank you so much, Alex. Your response reinforced what I thought, which made me look into some other things. I found out the import process was not going through because I included the solicitor (to be able to import the solicitor, I needed the Proposal Import ID). So what I did was import the new proposal first (that created the Proposal Import ID). Then made a second import run for the solicitor (with ImportID, Proposal Import ID, Solicitor Import ID).

Thank you!

Elaine Tucker

@Bernard Nemis when you are adding new proposals, you can assign your own proposal import ID's, so you don't have to create a 2nd export/import file for solicitors. Import round one exclude solicitor, import round two update to add solicitor

Bernard Nemis

@Elaine Tucker
Hi, Elaine. Hmmm. Thank you. I didn't think you could add your own ImportIDs. I've always chosen ImportIDs over ConstituentIDs for my unique keys because ConstituentID can be changed (and I thought ImportID is always system generated and cannot be altered). So what you are saying is create my own ImportID and add that and the Solicitor ImportID to Round One?

Thank you.

Alex Wong

@Bernard Nemis
There are difference in opinion on using system defined import id vs user defined, so I'm not going to go into that now.

However, please keep in mind that import id cannot be changed once created. it is used for making update to its respective record type (gift import id to update gift, proposal import id to update proposal). While you can specify your own proposal import id and there by removing a step in your process (no need to get the proposal import id after first import to create the proposal and use that on the 2nd import), that user defined proposal import id will forever be that.

Why is that important? ONE you need to make sure it is unique across all proposal, so you need to somehow “formulate” your proposal import id. TWO if you forumla your import id let's say with your constituent id, if you ever merge and clean up constituent record, the constituent id will change and that “may” conflict with your thought process of what the proposal import id formulation.

If you do plan to use your own proposal import id, keep in mind that import id can be up to 20 characters only

Christine Robertson 4

@Bernard Nemis You can create your own (so long as they don't already exist), but you cannot change the import ID once it's in the system.

Bernard Nemis

@Christine Robertson
Thank you, Christine. I appreciate it!

Bernard Nemis

@Alex Wong
Thanks, Alex. I'll most likely do a 2nd run of import just to preserve that personal concept of depending on the system to create the ImportID rather than me doing it.